I’m Gonna Take You for a Ride! Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Review

We’ve seen it in previews and we’ve been wowed with how it looks and finally its here! The 3rd installment to the popular fighting game series, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds has arrived and we’re here to share our impressions of this wild, cosmic button-smashing game!

First off, we were blown away with how this game looks. The details, color, animation and the effects are really something to look at. Fans and new players alike will be easily pleased at the level of visuals this game has. Capcom has done a remarkable job in remodeling the visuals of the game into a comic book appearance compared to the more anime-ish look from the previous game – which we think serves a greater fanbase. The soundtrack is also a great match to its visuals – keeping up with the game and delivering the right notes when needed. It gets the players involved and is in tune with the fast-paced visuals and gameplay. One of our all-time favorite tracks comes back in the form of the “Take You for a Ride” remix.

Stunning.

We note the new characters of the game ranging from Marvel’s cosmic personas (Phoenix and Dormamu) to Resident Evil (Wesker and Chris) and Devil May Cry (Dante and Trish) but we’ve also noticed that the roster is smaller; from 56 playable characters of the older game, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 gives you 36 playable characters out of the box. Although 20 characters short doesn’t really mean less the fun. (New characters have been announced and will be available as DLC. – Ed.)

The story involves another couple of battles to defeat a giant Galactus in outer space which is very similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Once completed, you’re rewarded with a couple of screens with the character you finished with, and you’ll notice that the game never really gives much story, let alone canon, to stick with. – Ed.

Seems basic enough, right?

Most of the original gameplay still exists with the character choice, assist and tag system. Matches are limited to one round, but a player has three possible characters to fight with. At the start, players choose assists for their characters and can tag them in or out when needed. Tagged-out characters regain health and can be used to temporarily assist in the fight. This leads to a lot of craziness on the screen which most MvC players are used to – but it will take some time for new players to adjust. – Ed.

Gameplay is also simplified by the new button arrangements wherein the game has trimmed the complexity (and difficulty) of attacks and combos. Attack buttons are now remapped to do Low, Medium, High and Special attacks. Team Hyper Combos are now one button triggered and assists are also one button triggered instead of the Punch and Kick buttons from the previous game. New game mechanics include the X-Factor (an ability to increase damage, improved health recovery rate and hyper combo cancelation) and aerial team combos when the Special Attack button gets included in mid-air combinations.

Then it gets completely crazy

All this thumb-numbing experience can scare new players thus the introduction of Simple Mode which simplifies the moves and combos in several buttons but will disable access to several moves. The franchise definitely reminds us of button-mashing experience but in truth it does require skill and patience to pull out ridiculously looking (and pretty!) combos.

Despite all of this, Capcom failed to deliver in diversifying the title. Worse is that the game doesn’t include new game modes, character customization and gimmicks from Capcom’s other titles that could prolong its life-span. With 4 unlockable characters and 2 more for DLC, there’s nothing much to do or look at once you’ve played thru and learned the basics of doing various combinations. (It should be noted that the training mode is incredibly spartan where it tells you what the motions you could do for combos, but never really shows you or gives you a proper way to practice. – Ed.)

Then it gets crazier still.

Much like the training mode, the online component is also quite devoid of modern features and proper interface designs – not to mention lacking some decent matchmaking. There is no spectate system which is probably the first feature you’ll ever want to have online, save for being able to fight other people. It has problems similar to Street Fighter 4 where hitting quick match will repeatedly give you the same 3 unconnectable match choices and every time you try, will give you the disconnect screen and dump you 3 menus back. Pretty much a lot of hassle just to jump into a game. Its better when you have friends who you know can be counted on to fight with and provide no problems connecting – unfortunately the lack of spectate system means that even if you get a decent amount of friends playing, the rest will have to be staring at just a boring screen twiddling their thumbs and wouldn’t even be able to comment or talk smack about the game in progress. – Ed.

Backgrounds are deep and well detailed though, which you might not notice over so much craziness

Overall Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is a great fighting game. It’s a new look and feel of an old game people loved from before. Stunning visuals, new characters, new button configuration and balanced in-game mechanics had this franchise revived. It’s easy to lose hours and hours of game play exploring and seeing everything. What really sets it back is the lack of diversity and modern features in its modes. With all the modes Capcom had created in their other titles, I really couldn’t see why these modes can’t be incorporated in this game.

We give Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds 3 of 5 stars.

Editor’s Note: This review was written by our special review contributor Gerard with some revisions and additions by yours truly. – Puff